The bats, bullpen, and David Bednar helped the Yankees snap their five-game losing streak on Wednesday afternoon, picking up their first win since the trade deadline in a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.
Carlos Rodón didn’t have his best stuff but managed to keep the Yankees in it. The lefty worked around four walks and allowed two runs over five innings, striking out three. It marked the seventh straight game in which a Yankees starter failed to record an out in the sixth.
The Rangers struck first in the third inning after a leadoff double from Ezequiel Duran and an RBI single by Sam Haggerty. A walk to Corey Seager looked like it might unravel the inning for Rodón, but the veteran left-hander induced a double play then got Adolis García to pop out, limiting the damage to just one run.
The Yankees answered in the fourth, taking advantage of Jack Leiter’s command issues. After walking Cody Bellinger and Jasson Domínguez, Anthony Volpe, Leiter’s former Delbarton School teammate, lined an RBI single into left to tie the game at. A double steal followed, and a throwing error by Kyle Higashioka allowed Domínguez to score and Volpe to move to third. Another walk ended Leiter’s night, and reliever Holby Miller came on to get back-to-back groundouts to escape further trouble.
Texas threatened again in the fifth, loading the bases with one out on an infield single, a walk, and a bloop that dropped between three Yankees. But once again, Rodón worked out of trouble, getting Marcus Semien to fly out and García to ground out to short.
Paul Goldschmidt put the Yankees ahead in the seventh with a pinch-hit solo homer off left-hander Robert Garcia. It was another example of Goldschmidt’s continued dominance against lefties and a savvy move by Aaron Boone, who sent him up in place of Austin Wells.
Mark Leiter Jr., cousin of Rangers starter Jack Leiter, tossed a scoreless sixth. Tim Hill and Yerry De Los Santos followed with clean innings before David Bednar closed it out with a five-out save, striking out five and throwing a career-high 42 pitches.
